“Arrow” recap (3.19): I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Before we dive into this week’s episode of Arrow, I feel it necessary to give a mini summary of this week’s episode of The Flash, because Felicity and Ray popped over to Central City for a spin. It seems that The CW mucked up the airing order a bit, because I do believe the episode of The Flash takes place before last week’s episode of Arrow. Because Felicity and Ray are hunky dory, being adorkable all over Star Labs.

In fact, while they both ramble their way in and out of accidental innuendos, Caitlin declares, “There’s two of them,” because, truly, they are similar in their weirdness. However, not everyone welcomes them with open smiles, causing Felicity to ask Barry why he’s being all broody; that’s Oliver’s gig.

While the Starling City duo is there, an army of killer bees with unnaturally specific targets and deathly venom becomes an immediate threat. Felicity tells Barry to “beeee careful” because she’s the cutest and instructs him not to die. Like most of the men in her life, he doesn’t listen and gets pretty dead, but luckily his suit has the ability to do whatever he needs it to do in the exact moment he needs it and he came back to life.

Other point of interest is when Felicity, Ray, Barry, Iris, and Iris’s Boyfriend go on a five-way date and Felicity basically hits on Iris.

And who can blame her?

Despite Barry’s resistance, Felicity eventually convinces him to let her help, and she uses her superskills to hack the bees to death. (They ended up being robot bees, controlled by a cute but evil scientist who was really into bee-themed puns.) She also manages to convince Barry that Caitlin and Cisco are good guys, because she is the best one.

Relevant of nothing, one of my favorite things about Felicity is her inability to keep the things she thinks from flying out of her mouth, like when she told Caitlin that dating Ray is like dating Barry in Oliver’s body.

All in all it was a fun episode, and if you’re watching Arrow but aren’t watching The Flash, you’re doing it wrong.

And now for the main attraction!

Previously on Arrow, Ra’s al Ghul offered Oliver his position as Demon’s Head but by “offered,” I mean “asked politely but then aggressively sabotaged his life to try to force him to say yes.” And because of these shenanigans, Oliver got arrested, but Roy stepped in and “confessed” to being the Arrow to take Oliver’s place behind bars.

Because Starling City isn’t experiencing enough chaos at the moment, a gentleman with laser beams for eyes decides to stroll in and start robbing banks. He almost looks like he could be related to the Twelfth Doctor, excepting the glowing red eyes of course.

Across town, Lance marches Oliver past a group of picketers and into the station, telling Oliver that he can’t let an adorable ex-street rat take the fall for his vigilantism, and Oliver says he doesn’t intend to. But before he can sign a confession, Laurel storms in saying that the DA ordered Oliver be released, because she won’t let her father get away with his lunacy.

“Do not besmirch the Lance name, dad!”

At Palmer Tech, Ray goes in to see Felicity and starts awkwardly trying to apologize for using the “L” word so soon, claiming he just meant love like luv not love like LOVE, you know? He rambles on a bit and then leaves her before she can ramble back, but Felicity looks conflicted at best.

“I can’t help that I’m so popular.”

Oliver goes to visit Roy in prison and Roy tries his hardest to insist he’s okay. He’s felt like he needed to be punished since he found out he killed that cop, and somehow this just feels right; he’s serving his time and he’s helping a friend, all in one go. He promises he’s going to be just fine.

Oliver’s next stop is to see Thea and she’s relieved to hear that Oliver is very anti-Roy in jail and that it wasn’t his idea in the first place. Oliver’s ready to suit up and get him out, but Felicity says they have a more pressing matter at hand: There’s a metahuman in Starling City. Oliver sends Felicity to call Star Labs to see if they know anything about them. (See, you should be watching both shows.)

Captain Lance interrupts this save-the-world party with a SWAT team, a warrant, and a bad attitude. Team Arrow watches despondently as Lance and his men tear apart the Arrow Cave, like an addict hunting down another hit. I guess that makes sense though, doesn’t it? When Sara died the first time, Lance turned to alcohol, an addiction he could drown his pain in. He’s sober now, but he’s grieving again, so it’s not that surprising that he’s becoming almost manic in his determination to take down the Arrow. This is his new addiction, his new outlet for his pain.

But Felicity is too smart to let Lance win that easily, so she and Diggle had wiped the place clean of all fingerprints besides Roy’s.

“I mean, you’re welcome.”

Lance shakes with rage but tells them he’ll be ready to pounce as soon as they make a mistake.

Oliver too is becoming manic, but it’s because he’s itching to get Roy out of jail. Every minute Roy is behind bars because of Oliver is like a stone placed on his chest. Since he can’t help Roy, he’s ready to go stop the metahuman, but Diggle reminds him that he can’t really do that either. Oliver tells Felicity to call Barry, but Barry is dealing with his own stuff right now, so Oliver says they have to ask Ray instead. And asking Ray to help is like asking a puppy if he wants to go on a walk.